The present invention relates generally to communicating with transponders in a fueling environment and, more particularly, to a dispensing system capable of arbitrating between competing tags and dispensers to ensure a dispenser communicates with the tag most proximate to that dispenser.
In recent years, traditional gasoline pumps at service stations have evolved into elaborate point-of-sale (POS) devices having sophisticated control electronics and user interfaces with large displays and touch pads (or screens). These dispensers include various types of payment means, such as card readers, to expedite and further enhance fueling transactions. A customer is not limited to the purchase of fuel at the dispenser. More recent dispensers allow the customer to purchase services, such as car washes, and goods such as fast food or convenience store products at the dispenser. Once purchased, the customer need only pick up the goods and services at the station store.
Given the ever increasing demand to increase transaction efficiency by both fuel suppliers and customers, transaction systems associated with the service stations are further evolving to provide fully automated authorization and purchasing. It would be advantageous if customers no longer needed to use a credit/debit card or smartcard to purchase fuel or other products or services. This can be accomplished if the customer, vehicle or both are equipped with a remote intelligent communications device, or transponder (hereinafter referred to as a tag for simplicity), capable of remotely communicating with fuel dispensers and other devices as desired. These tags and dispensers operate in conjunction to provide a cashless and cardless transaction system where transactions are automatically charged or debited without requiring any action by the customer. A tag is a remote communication device capable of uni-directional or bi-directional communications to and/or from a fuel dispenser""s remote communications system.
Numerous patents have issued and foreign applications published relating to technology associated with communicating information between a tag or like transponder and the fuel dispenser. These patents disclose communicating between the tag and fuel dispenser with fiber optics, electromagnetic radiation, such as radio frequency transmissions, infrared, direct electrical connections and various others means or combination of these means. Various types of information are communicated between the tag and the dispenser including vehicle identification, customer identification, account information, fuel requirements, diagnostics, advertising, and various other types of solicited and unsolicited messages. Certain specific applications equip the tag and dispenser with cryptography electronics to encrypt and decrypt data transferred between the tag and dispenser.
Tag transponder technology is used in many areas of technology relating to vehicles. Such technology is used in tracking vehicles, navigational aids, toll collection, diagnostics, vehicle security and theft deterrence, keyless entry, refueling, collision avoidance, vehicle identification, surveillance and traffic control as well as transmitting and receiving financial data.
In theory, such communications between a tag and a fuel dispenser appear to be an answer to increasing transactional efficiencies. However, when multiple tags are used in an application where a single tag can be read by multiple devices, the problem of location arbitration becomes an issue. Location arbitration is defined as the process of determining the physical closest proximity of a tag to a dispenser in applications where the proximity of the tag to the dispenser basically determines which dispenser should interact with the tag.
One example is the use of a tag to authorize a credit card transaction at a gasoline dispenser in place of a credit card. In this instance, multiple dispensers might have the ability to read the same tag but, by nature of the application, only the dispenser that is closest to the tag is meant to interact with the tag. To further complicate the issue, numerous tags may be within a single dispenser""s communication field to provide a situation where multiple dispensers are talking with multiple tags. Although current systems are available for determining the existence and identity of tags, applicants are not aware of any systems providing an economical and effective system and process to associate the proximity of a tag with the various dispensers in close proximity to each other.
The present invention provides a system to store a sequence of data records relating to attributes of interactions between fuel dispensers and tags. The data records may be stored on the tag or at a location remote from the tag, such as a fuel dispenser, central site controller or other network. The data records may contain the identity of the dispenser, tag and an attribute of a received signal, such as frequency band or signal strength, or other attribute indicative of proximity. Every dispenser that attempts to communicate with a tag in question adds its own interaction data to a limited history of a tag""s past interactions with the same and other dispensers. When a dispenser or central site control system examines the contents of the interaction histories, the detected presence of other dispensers or the relative strength of the recorded interaction attributes will determine what, if any, action is to be taken by the dispensers or central site control system to communicate with the tag at issue.
Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention provides a remote communication unit arbitration system including a housing, a control system that has memory and is associated with the housing, and communication electronics operatively associated with the control system. The communication electronics may have a transmitter for transmitting signals to a remote communication unit and a receiver for receiving signals from the remote communication unit. The arbitration system also includes monitoring electronics having an input associated with the control system and an output associated with the communication electronics. The attribute monitoring electronics are adapted to 1) monitor an attribute of a signal received by the communication electronics wherein the attribute is indicative of the relative proximity of the remote communication unit and the housing, and 2) provide the control system with a new proximity value indicative of the relative proximity of the remote communication unit and the housing. The control system is preferably adapted to compare the new proximity value with a prior proximity value from a prior communication with the remote communication unit and determine a relative proximity of the remote communication unit to the housing with respect to a communicative device associated with the prior communication based on the new and prior proximity values.
The control system may also be adapted to obtain the prior proximity value from a record in an interaction attribute database having a listing of records wherein each record includes 1) a prior proximity value associated with a prior communication with the remote communication unit from a communicative device, and 2) communication indicia of the communicative device. The control system may also be adapted to cause the new proximity value to be added as a record to the interaction attribute database in association with a unique identification indicia representative of a communicative device. The control system may determine the relative proximity of the remote communication unit by determining the proximity value representative of the closest proximity. The interaction attribute database may be located at the remote communication unit wherein the control system is adapted to access the database via radio communications through the communication electronics or the interaction attribute may be located at a central control system apart from the housing.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a fuel dispenser for independently arbitrating the proximity of remote communication units wherein a remote communication unit has an interaction attribute database having a listing of records. Each record includes an interaction attribute associated with a prior communication between the remote communication unit and a communicative device and an identification indicia of the communicative device. The dispenser includes a control system having memory associated with the housing and communication electronics operatively associated with the control system having a transmitter and a receiver. The control system is adapted to a) determine an interaction attribute indicative of a relative proximity of the communications between the remote communication unit and the fuel dispenser; b) obtain from the remote communication device via the communication electronics, 1) a proximity value associated with a prior communication between the remote communication unit and a communicative device, and 2) an identification indicia of the communicative device; and c) determine a relative proximity of the fuel dispenser with respect to a communicative device based on the interaction attributes associated with the fuel dispenser and the communicative device.
The interaction attribute may be derived from a signal strength measurement made by the control system. In such embodiment, the control system may include signal strength electronics configured to provide the interaction attribute proportional to a strength measurement of a signal received by the communication electronics. The signal strength electronics may include automatic gain control circuitry adapted to amplify the received signal to a nominal signal strength. The gain control circuitry may include an output proportional to the gain necessary to amplify the received signal to the nominal signal strength, wherein the output represents the interaction attribute.
In particular, the gain control circuitry may include a variable gain amplifier having a gain input and a signal wherein the signal input receives the received signal from a remote communication unit. The gain control circuitry also includes a gain control amplifier having an input derived from the normalized signal of the variable gain amplifier""s output and an output representing the amount of gain necessary to normalize the received signal. The output also provides feedback to the variable gain amplifier. The output of the gain control amplifier may be fed into a digital-to-analog converter to provide a digital string representing an amount of gain necessary to normalize the received signal. Those skilled in the art will be aware of other common methods of determining signal strength.
Alternatively, the interaction attribute may be derived from detecting a number of errors occurring during a communication between the remote communication unit and a communicative device. The control system may be adapted to count the number of errors during the communication to provide an interaction attribute wherein the number of errors occurring during a communication is indicative of a relative proximity. Similarly, the interaction attribute may be derived from detecting a number of attempts at communication without completion between the remote communication unit and a communicative device. In general, the interaction attribute may be virtually any attribute indicative of a relative proximity between the remote communication unit and the fuel dispenser. Furthermore, the interaction attributes may be monitored or checked to determine if other communicative devices have communicated with the remote communication unit, where the remote communication unit has been, its direction of travel and movement, as well as whether or not the remote communication unit is moving.
Yet another aspect of the present invention provides a method of independently arbitrating between remote communication units wherein records are either stored at a central control system or on the remote communication unit. The method typically comprises 1) transmitting a signal to a remote communication unit; 2) receiving an identification indicia from the remote communication unit; 3) determining an interaction attribute indicative of a relative proximity of communication between the remote communication unit and the dispenser based on the received signal; 4) obtaining from the remote communication unit a proximity value associated with a prior communication between the remote communication unit and a communicative device and an identification indicia of the communicative device; and 5) determining a relative proximity of the fuel dispenser with respect to the communicative device based on the interaction attributes associated with the fuel dispenser and the communicative device.